The Infini Factor
by R.M1
Summary: Nine years after Try, Xellos starts stalking Filia in a small town. But when she calls for Lina to help her, the worst imaginable happens. Or something like that.


  
Legend's Elegy  
by Rei Maria   
Distribution: Ask me, and I will cry from joy.  
Disclaimer: The characters from "Slayers" are the products of:   
Software Sculptors, Tokyo TV, Enoki Films Co., Ltd., Monthly Dragon Magazine, Weekly Comic Dragon,  
Fujimi Books, Hajime Kanzaka, Rui Araizumi, and Kadokawa Publishing Co., Ltd. Please don't sue, I only have quarters for the bus.   
  
Rating: Maybe 'R' for disturbing imagery and cursing.   
  
Pairing: Lina/Gourry, this part. More things later.   
Feedback: I can beg. Really well. Please? *makes a pouty face*  
  
Notes: Um, I wrote while staying in a hick town in New Jersey, getting angry at my father and reading too much of Stephen King's "Apt Pupil" way back in July. I'm working on the rest of it (all twelve freaking chapters of it), so all the huge plot holes will be explained. There is a well thought out reason for a couple events.   
  
/=dream sequence  
  
-----  
  
All the priests and friars   
Approach me in dread  
Because I still love you, my love and you're dead  
I still would be your shepherd   
Through rain and through storm  
And with you in a cold grave, I cannot sleep warm.  
--Sinead O'Connor   
  
  
She lived in a small, dead town.   
  
It was a place where everyone knew each other, but no ever spoke to one another. She lived I a world of metal fences where no one bothered to cut the grass or plant flowers on their front lawns. The paint was pealing off all the widow panes and porches were all crocked and rotting. Everything there was built fifty years before she came, from houses to stores, to family rivalries.  
  
It was a bit different from the life she had once lead as a priestess of the Fire Dragon King. In the town, she owned a pottery shop and was disliked. She refused to blend and didn't back down from her point of view. She was different from the other women, who smoked and read trashy romance novels that always seemed to portray the dashing hero shedding the large breasted heroine of her skanky lavender dress on the cover.   
  
This was a place where people went when they failed at life. She came there to make sure Valteria didn't walk the same destructive walkway as Valgarv did. She refused to give up, and, at least in her eyes, it was paying off.   
  
  
*  
  
Filia swatted her callused hand over her face, picking at the back of her pink sundress. Sweat was running down her flushed cheeks, and her platinum blond locks clung to her moist forehead. "It's too hot..." she mumbled into her fist.   
  
A mosquito buzzed around her ankles, and she lashed out with one sandal-covered foot. If it wasn't one annoyance then it was another with summer; no one wanted to look at pottery when it was so hot you could have fried bacon on the street, even if she lugged it out to their houses for an extra twelve coins.   
  
The heat, it seemed also made her neighbors snap and quarrel, and sometimes resort to violence to solve conflicts. Old rivalries flared up and crime went up in the summer months. Why just the other day old Mr. West had been threatening Mr. Light was a shovel over a small piece of land!  
  
"The neighborhood is sure goin' down hill," Mrs. Bridgesaw, Filia's acquaintance (you couldn't really call such a gossip a friend) had drowned in her thick, high pitched voice a few days earlier. Then again, Mrs. Bridgesaw had been saying that for the last ten years. You couldn't really take her seriously anymore.   
  
Sighing, Filia leaned back in her wicker chair, letting the warm breeze glide over her face. Her limbs were sore from carrying pottery, and she wanted nothing more than to fall into bed. Unfortunately, the farthest she had been able to drag herself was the back porch. Filia prayed none of the chatty, obnoxious women who had clung to her since she moved appeared on the doorstep that day.   
  
She's had enough of that yesterday when Mrs. Whitman invited herself for supper and bragged about her husband's promotion at the mill and her son's new girlfriend.   
  
"...She's really darling. Good family, good breeding. I could just see the children!" Mrs. Whitman squealed, sounding more like an young school girl than a "respected society member" (in Avolia that meant she gossiped, talked too much, was part of the women's club and went to church every weekend).   
  
Filia had nodded, seeming to be riveted by the other's woman. In truth, she had been sharing at a swallow outside the window. Valteria was busy constructing a pyramid from the left over potatoes while Grabos and Jiras were trying to clear the table.   
  
"'Scuse me ma'am," Jiras said, reaching across Mrs. Whitman go grab her empty plate. Mrs. Whitman moved her elbow, which kit the kitsune's arm and the remnants of dinner fell into the woman's lap.  
  
"AG!" she shrieked, springing up and swatting her hands at the fox man, ignoring the shattered plate on the floor. "You clumsy little..! AG! Why Filia?!! Why do you keep these monsters," the housewife pointed a bony finger at Grabos and Jiras, "around?!!"   
  
Filia glared at her. "I would be happy if you didn't call some of my dear friends monsters Mrs. Whitman," she said, trying to not gash her teeth together. Val groaned and bent down to retrieve the shards of porcelain from underneath the table as Mrs. Whitman continued her tantrum.   
  
I hope she doesn't want to come to dinner tonight. Filia said to herself. Before the Gold could worry about Mrs. Whitman anymore, the garden gate swung open, and the former miko jumped out of her seat. Breathing a sigh of relief, she laughed. "Gods Val you scared me!"   
  
"Sorry," he said, more into his torn shirt than to his mother. His left eye was swollen and a deep shade of black, and his face had a few long, angry gashes sliced into pale ivory skin.  
  
"Val, what happened to you?!" Filia said as he limped onto the porch.   
  
"Nuthin'," he said. She grabbed his bony wrist and tugged her son towards her.   
  
"What happened?" she repeated. Val sighed, whipping his nose with the corner of his shirt.   
  
"Billy Kurtsman was picking on that dumb girl Patty Markins and I told him to quit He got pissed off-" he stopped, seeing Filia narrowing her eyes. "He got mad," he corrected, "and punched me, so I punched him back and we got in a fight." Then the young aqua haired boy grinned proudly, as if he's just won a war. "I won." Filia twacked him on the head none too gently.   
  
"Even if you were sticking up for someone, you shouldn't beat the other boys up, and then be proud of it!" she said sternly, placing her hands on her hips.   
  
"Billy Kurtsman's a foot taller than me!" Val held his arm above his head, indicating the other boy's size.   
  
"What's *that* got to do with anything?!"   
  
"You should be proud of me cos I won over a guy that's a foot taller than me!"   
  
Filia rolled her eyes, looking skyward. "You're missing the point..." Val grumbled something in response.   
  
"Um, boss, there's somebody at wantin' ta see you!" Jiras yelled from the back door.   
  
"Oh Lord!" Filia said, resisting the urge to throw her hands up in the air. "If it's that awful Mrs. Whitman I'll...." she said under her breath. Val shrugged and followed his mother.   
  
*  
  
At the door was not Mrs. Whitman but a fuming, angry Mrs. Kurtsman, her light brown hair unkept and apron only half on. Her dirty amber eyes held fire in them and the woman looked ready to jump down the throat of anyone who came within ten feet of her. "Can I help you?" Filia asked politely.   
  
"Has yer boy come home yet?" Mrs. Kurtsman said. Her foot had begun to tapping on the planks of the front deck. Filia nodded, and that was all the woman needed to start ranting. "He gave my son two black eyes and the Doc says his nose may be *broken*! What kind of you raisn' that picks fights?!" she yelled, getting nose to nose with Filia, who barely blinked.   
  
"Excuse me Mrs. Kurtsman, but according to Valteria Billy was picking on a little girl and Billy was the one who attacked Val when my son told him to stop!" Filia said, controlling her temper just enough not to start drawing blood from her lip. The brunette laughed sarcastically.   
  
"That retarded girl and my Billy was just talkin'."   
  
"I really don't think you should call Patty-" Filia started. Mrs. Kurstman cut her off.   
  
"As for the trouble that little *bastard*," she used that term as if it were Valteria's name, "you have th' nerve to call yer son, you best teach him some manners 'afor my husband comes down here ta do it for ya!"   
  
It took every bit of Filia's shredding will-power not to get her mace out of the broom closet (where it had sat dusty and unused for years) and smash the other woman's skull in. Taking a deep breath, she slammed the screen door in Mrs. Kurtsman's face.   
  
"Filia-mama-" Val started. Filia folded her arms across her chest and hung her head.   
  
"Val, go play in the garden," she said. The boy slowly moved away and she heard the door creak closed. This happened every once and a whole; sometimes she'd get hopeless, and even a little bit hateful. In the shrine there was no hate, only dislike for dinner and repulsion for the sings of mankind and the mazoku race.   
  
Filia had grown up in a world where the only emotion you could feel was nonexistent love for the world and the only thing you ever thought about was light. She's never been tempted by anything. That changed once she entered the Real World, where everything wasn't seen through the rose colored stained glass windows of the shrine.   
  
Culture shock?  
  
Hell yes.   
  
*  
  
As she lay awake in bed that night, Filia listened to the noises of summer carried on the breeze; the crickets, the sound of sheets being tossed on and off of figures whose sweat was just as sticky and bled just as freely as her own. The nightfall held no relief from the sweltering heat.   
  
Somewhere down the block a man screamed at his wife for not washing his clothes, and she yelled at him for tracking mud on the floor. "SHUT UP!" Valteria yelled out of his window before jumping back into bed. A smile cracked on Filia's burned lips.   
  
"He's a piece of work!" Lina had said, laughing with Filia on her last visit Avolia with Gourry. It was no secret Lina hated the small town, and always preferred to meet Filia and her family at annual gatherings in Seryun at Solstice. But a few times she'd dragged Gourry to Filia's house to stay for a week or two. Filia always admired the fact that although in her twenties now, Lina hadn't changed a bit. It was both a blessing and a curse. Then again, every time she met with the group they insisted she too was the same, just a bit more mellow.   
  
These gatherings were not always happy though; Lina regarded society with disgust and society only put up with Lina's mannerisms because the Queen of Seryun had studied magick under her. Zelgadis always seemed not want to meet with the old group now. It was no secret he no longer felt friendly towards them, and he only came to Seryun once a year after being begged by Amelia. And to make matters worse, everyone who had fought against Dark Star regarded Valteria with caution.   
  
To them, he was a time bomb; a boy who if distressed could become the dangerous mad man he once was. When Val had been an infant, it hadn't been an issue. On the last visit, Lina had seemed skittish and almost...almost frightened of the boy. When Filia looked at Val's he saw a creature on needing love and a family and redemption. When Lina saw Val, she saw Death, insane face grinning at destruction and the cackling laughter of a decaying, obsessive mind.   
  
And after today...Filia shuddered into the sheets, sweat sliding down her back.   
  
She had to try harder. Only she could determine, Filia thought, what path Val went down. She didn't believe in Fate, not after seeing the world almost gobbled up by a giant bug called Dark Star and a human girl with a bow and arrow made of light defeat it. Evil was something that be avoided. It was something you just had to stay away from, and then you wouldn't-you *couldn't*-be corrupted by it. That was why she had moved to such a desolate place; to escape every evil that wanted both Val and herself.   
  
  
If no one finds us, we'll be all the better off. She had told herself numerous times.  
  
Filia was always treading water, always trying to beat the Devil in someway or another. Moving and never telling anyone *what* she really was helped that. She knew, of course, that if THEY looked hard enough THEY would find her. You can't beat away the shadows, no matter how big the sword you're wielding is.   
  
Maybe that's why her mace was still in the closet, and maybe that's why she'd told Jiras to keep a few pistols around. Filia finally dozed off, lulled by a silky voice singing softy in her ears, and she slept without the knowledge of a pencil scratching on paper beside her bed. She slept, caught in a world of perfect fantasies.   
  
*  
  
Daybreak broke long after Filia had begun getting ready to go open shop. After yet another sticky night, lugging a few pails of water from the town well seemed little price to pay for a cold bath. While brushing out over a foot of golden locks, Filia wondered for the tenth time that month whether keeping her hair long was more a hassle than an asset. It was frizzy and unruly when it was humid, meaning she had to go through the feat of braiding it everyday. A necessary evil, she finally decided as she left her room.   
  
She opened the door to Val's room, poking her head on. "Val, get up! I'm leaving!" Val made a sleepy noise in response, stuffing his face into his pillow. "There's a few coins on the table if you want ice cream, and I want you to walk down to Mr. Romano's house and return that hatchet I borrowed from him."   
  
This finally got a response from the young boy. "Mr. *Romano*?! But he smells like cold soap!"  
  
"Val please."   
  
"Okay..." Val groaned, sitting up in bed.   
  
"And Val," she said she was about to close the door, "please don't pick anymore fights." The boy nodded and Filia bounded down the stairs into the kitchen. Jiras was already at the table, slurping up iced noodles, since no one had any desire to turn to the oven on.   
  
"Mornin' boss!" he said cheerfully. She smiled in response.   
  
"Where's Grabos? And you don't happen to remember where I put the butter do you?" she said, waving a piece of bread around her face.   
  
"Already at th' shop and in the bottom cabinet. Oh, and somebody senta letter to ya!" he pushed a piece of brown paper towards her. She snatched it up and examined it.   
  
"Who sent it?" she asked. Jiras shrugged.   
  
"Dunno-it didn't have no return address."  
  
"Huh." she said, ripping through the crimson wax seal on the backside. Unfolding it, she stared blankly at the first page, cold enveloping her. Her heart stopped beating and her breath paused. There, on the paper, was a sketch (a *good* sketch, she later noted) of herself, hands behind her head and eyes closed. The sheets in the picture were half on her form, and her hair was spread across her pillow.  
  
Frantically, she flipped to the next page. This drawing was of Val, sleeping soundly with one hand clutching the sheets, the other holding the small plush cat he refused to admit to anyone he still slept with. Her eyes grew wide, rimmed with terror. The drawings fluttered to the ground like wings ripped freshly from a butterfly as she read the seven words scrawled on the last piece of parchment, clarity-horrible, sickening clarity-slowly seeping into her mind.   
  
Filia,   
Did you miss me?  
Xellos Metallium.   
  
Filia bit down on her thumbnail, every fear bubbling in her throat, wanting to escape.   
  
"Boss?" Jiras said, standing up and cautiously approaching her.   
  
  
(ohgodohgodohgod)   
  
  
She panted, hands shaking. Her mind told her to move, but legs riveted to the ground by the ice known as fear refused to move.   
  
  
"Boss?" Jiras shook her gently, but she didn't respond.   
  
  
Then a hand, a monstrous claw bound in flesh, blood and satin, grabbed her wrist and another covered her mouth. "Guess who Fi." The grip was firm, but not too strong. Xellos just wanted to taste her fear, to breathe it in like a drug. And indeed, in a way, it was giving him a sort of high. Filia was revolted by this, she tried to kick him off, and failed miserably to uproot his feet. Her next instinct was to get his hand off of her mouth, even if it wouldn't remedy the situation.   
  
  
Sinking her dagger front teeth into the glove, she bit down. He yelped, and surprisingly let go of her. Losing her balance, she tumbled on top of Jiras. Chuckling, Xellos waved a finger Filia. "You do realize I *like* that sort of thing don't you?"   
  
  
Filia hissed, teeth barred as if she were a frightened cat.   
  
  
"Get out of my house!" she said, stumbling to her feet, near blood rage flooding her deep eyes. "You're not welcome here." Xellos laughed, as if he'd just been told a good joke.   
  
  
"Oh I truly never dreamed such a thing!" he said in mock horror. On a normal occasion Filia would have been annoyed with the mazoku, but now she was searching for *anything* that could that could get him out. Jiras ducked behind her dress and whimpered. "Now Filia where-"  
  
  
A door upstairs slammed shut and Valteria appeared at the top of the stairs. "Hey Mom, where's my brown shoes..." he trailed off, seeing Xellos ruby staff glinting in the sunlight. It looked like crystallized blood." ...What're you going here?" the boyish innocent faded away from his voice, and a deep, more commanding sound came into it, along with a brassy, cold tone.   
  
  
"You remember me." Xellos's lips tilted up into a widening smile as both eyes opened up. Dark, bottomless pools of purple were the pupils, and the pearly white of the outer sea was flawless. Filia's blue-bloodshot eyes darted up to her son and back to Xellos.   
  
  
(nonononono)   
  
  
Val nodded in response to the statement, managing to make his eyes and stance more stony and distant than ever; they were full of arrogance and pride.   
  
  
"So how are you today Valgarv?" Xellos asked, relaxing a little.   
  
  
Val took a step down the stairs, almost challenging the trickster and Filia began to mouth of a spell. Xellos was unaware, caught up in the sick bliss of seeing old prey finally caught and ready for swift mutilation. She could sense and hear and think what he wanted to do with them all.   
  
  
"Have no desire to drag everyone in this house to Zellas-sama's, only you Val." Xellos took his own boot forward and approached the boy, who stood ridged. "So-"  
  
  
"Interis!" Filia panicked, shouting the last word of the spell she had been chanting at Xellos. A thing golden hit the trickster priest and light flooded the house for a few moments. Slowly it died down, and Filia found herself leaning on the kitchen table for support, rubbing invisible flecks of light from her eyes. A few dishes lay on the floor, a tin of milk had left the white liquid seeping into the floorboards. The skin on her hands burned as if it had been lit on fire. After clawing madly at them for a minute or so, the pain began to numb. She stared at her hands blankly as her son and Jiras called, whispered and shouted her name. Her vision split into inkblots of blood and then darkness.   
  
  
  
*  
  
/Her hands were count in a thin shard, covered in blood, both red and tarry black. She shook her head and turned down the hallway before her. The whole thing was white, so white she couldn't make out what was the floor and what was the ceiling. She kept her steady pace, head flicking to either side, searching for another exit or entrance. The light was too warm, too bright. It hurt her eyes so much that in desperation she tried to shut them. /  
  
  
/At first that hurt more. Hot tears started to bleed and slid down her sunburned face as needles were driven into her pupils. When she finally closed them though, she was greeted by cold, comforting darkness. This blackness had no end, yet it was not frightening. Instead, it was welcomed. The heat around her died down and she chanced a look around. /  
  
  
She stood in a shadowed drawing room. A rough oriental carpet patterned with exotic flowers and a sunset splattered phoenix was digging into the bottoms of her bare feet. The rest of the furniture, along with the velvety curtains, were all a rusty burgundy color. The atmosphere made her uneasy. /  
  
  
Quickly, she searched for a door. Finding none, she made her way into the apartment further. The sight around the bend made her heart start pounding against a rib cage that threatened to crack as the organ that gave her life thudded against it. There was a tall man hunched over a sleek, black grand piano, a glass of alcohol in his left hand and a half-spent cigarette dangling from the other. The air seemed to be made of smoke and despair, mixed with an almost moldy stench. The piano's keys were clinking into a tune resembling-no it was- "Fur Elise". /  
  
  
/Yet the man was not touching it; he didn't even seem to notice. Taking a deep drink from the glass, he stared at the couch directly across from him with such a deep compassion in his darkened eyes she was sure someone was sitting there. /  
  
/"Excuse me, but could you please tell me where I am?" she asked. The man ignored her, his gaze still intently rooted to the couch. "Excuse me, sir could you pleas-"/   
  
  
/"Why th' hell'd I come back here?" he grumbled, taking a long puff of the cigarette and blowing a perfect ring of smoke, which floated almost gracefully past her. Then-/   
  
  
Then Filia blinked and found herself on the kitchen floor, cool wooden beams against her back and Valteria standing over her. She nodded at him, smiling weakly in response to his concerned look. In truth, she didn't want to smile; she didn't want to get off the floor. She was sick   
  
  
(i don't want to get up)   
  
  
of beating THEM away with sticks and stones.   
  
  
*  
  
  
The next few hours were chaotic. Val had been told not to leave the house and Filia spent the rest of the morning cutting ruins into the floors and windows. The doors were bolted and Filia even considering boarding up the windows. After deciding she didn't want to alarm the neighbors with such pointless acts, she sat at the kitchen table, sweltering and dizzy. The light fuchsia dress she wore was sopping wet, and she was uncomfortable and frightened.   
  
  
"Damn," she whispered, ignoring the fact that she had cursed, and she never cursed. It could be said that the few obscenities she occasionally uttered were taught to her by Val, who seemed to learn a new insult everyday. Where he learned them though, was a mystery. But boys his age always had foul mouthed friends. Rubbing her temples, Filia shook her head, the swelling migraine inside it increasing.   
  
  
Lina. She had to write Lina. But where *was* the infamous Dragon Spooker in the middle of a steaming summer? Anywhere. The enchantress often proclaimed that the world was her home, and it really was the truth. She traveled so much it was almost impossible to tell where she was.   
  
  
There were rumors of course, but Lina Inverse had a habit of disappearing into thin air, and not dispelling the vanishing act for months. Lina had decided that she didn't want to save the world anymore, or at least it seemed. She had said blatantly that she had no desire to get mixed up with more mazoku, even if her ambitions of making a great name for herself had not changed.   
  
  
Filia sighed, and began to write.   
  
  
*  
  
  
"Mom says I can't come over here anymore." Val lowered his eyes, studying the carpeting, his foot circling the heat of the phoenix decorating it. The apartment he was in was dark, contained like a separate world inside velvet curtains and veiled in cigarette smoke. The man at the desk in front of the young boy lifted his head from the stack of parchment strewn on the cherrywood, eyes panicked and wild.   
  
  
"What?! How the *fuck* did she find out?!" he shouted, nearly springing up from the chair. Val took a step backwards as the man tried to lift himself, then fell back into the hair, clutching his head as though it were about to split open.   
  
  
"She doesn't know-I just...I can't leave the house for a while." Val paused, searching for words. "Xellos showed up yesterday. Mom wrote Lina Inverse but she says I can't go anywhere without her until...well, I guess until he gives up."   
  
  
The man breathed a small sigh of relief, leaning back in the oak chair. He still had a horrible headache, but the knowledge that he hadn't been discovered was helped it from getting any worse. On the other hand, if Xellos was in town, the man was sure the priest would find him sooner or later.   
  
  
Smiling, he took a long drag out of the cigarette and grabbed Val's wrist, bringing him closer. "You can handle Xellos." Val frowned, still studying the floor.   
  
  
"Yeah well..."   
  
  
The man sighed, letting go of the boy's arm and slumping even farther into the chair. "How's summer goin'?"   
  
  
"Hot. And I got in a fight with Billy Kurtsman. He's the reason I have this goddamn black eye," Val said, pointing towards the bruised skin around his eye. "I beat him though!" again, the note of pride slipped into Val's voice. The man chuckled.   
  
  
"Atta boy."   
  
  
The air hung sweltering and heavy for a few minutes, undisturbed by their voices. "I think I should go. Mom'll kill me if she finds out I went out. But I promise I'll come back as soon as I can. This'll probably just blow over or something!" he laughed nervously as he headed for the door.   
  
  
"Yeah." The older man nodded, not looking at Val as the young boy slipped out of the apartment.   
  
Maryou Garv, the former Dark Lord who had previously controlled the Great Deserts, took a swig of vodka from a crystal glass, hoping his former servant was right.   
  
  
*  
  
  
"Dang it!" Lina Inverse shouted, pulling the newspaper she was carrying over her head. "I *hate* rain!" she said, and accidentally stepped into a puddle, splashing rainwater onto her black boots. A light veil of rain was tumbling from the sky; drenching Lina and her self proclaimed protector Gourry Gabriev. "We've been walking forever! Where the hell is Avolia!"   
  
  
Gourry shrugged, obviously not bothered by the rain. "This is sorta nice though! It's not hot at all!" he said, grinned at the enchantress. Lina grumbled something that sounded like 'Jellyfish brains' at him and pulled the paper more tightly over her head. Black ink words were being imprinted on her white gloves and thin arms, and ink was flowing down her arms in a small river. After a few more minutes of trudging along, Lina gave up trying to keep herself dry and tossed the newspaper into a bush by the roadside. "Hey look!" Gourry shouted, pointing to a sign coming up on their right. "It says 'Welcome to Avolia!'" he said cheerfully. Lina burst into a large smile.   
  
  
"Thank the Gods!" she said. "Now we can get to Filia's and..." she trailed off as both her feet crossed the county line. Her body felt hot, burning like it was being ripped apart by an inferno. Her hands...she could smell the scent of burned, charred flesh and her visions were blurred with images of old bones laying sprawled on the ruins of a magnificent marble building. Lina heard moans of constant screaming...she was breathing in the town and she felt sick doing so. The air was wrong. This place was wrong. For a moment she thought of turning around and sprinting back down the road.   
  
  
"Look out!" someone called out. Lina snapped out of her trance just as Gourry launched himself at her, pushing them to the other side of the dirt highway.   
  
  
"Hey! What's the big idea?!" she shouted, shoving Gourry aside roughly to examine where they'd just been standing. A pile of large rocks lay where the city limits sign had stood and a man wearing a bright yellow hard hat was running towards them.   
  
  
"Are you people alright?!" the man said frantically. Gourry nodded, picking himself off the ground and dusting himself off. Lina sprang up, nearly grabbing the man by the shirt.   
  
  
"What the hell was that?!" she screamed.   
  
  
"I'm sorry about that! We're blasting up the marble up on that hill," he said, pointing to the hill on the right that the road twisted around. "We're building a huge public school up there and it's our last day blasting and I guess we got careless. Usually we have someone down here but..." he sighed. "Sorry."   
  
  
"Screw you!" Lina said, glaring at the construction worker as she grabbed Gourry's wrist and started to drag him towards Avolia. "Wait!" she said, turning around. "How much further to town?"   
  
  
"About four miles," the man replied. Lina groaned. "What's in Avolia?"   
  
  
"A friend. A good friend." She said.   
  
  
"Ah. Well, good day miss, and sorry about the rocks!" he said as he began to walk away. Gourry looked at to the woman beside him.   
  
  
"Hey Lina, before that happened...you seemed...you looked sorta sick," he said, a genuinely concerned look crossing into his blue eyes. Lina studied the ground.   
  
  
"I'm fine. It's just...I don't like this place. It feels...haunted," she finally said, looking up at him. "Ne Gourry, did you...did you feel something when we crossed into here?"   
  
  
Gourry blinked. "What'd you mean?"   
  
  
"Like...did you feel that something wasn't *right* about this place?"   
  
"Not really," he said. "Why? Did you?"   
  
  
"Yeah. Sorta." Then she laughed nervously. "Come on, lets go to Filia's."   
  
  
"You're sure you're okay Lina?" Gourry asked. She nodded.   
  
  
"I'm fine. Really."   
  
  
*  
  
  
"Hey Filia, long time no see!" Lina called, grinning and waving to her friend, who was seated on the front porch of her house. Filia jumped up, taking the few stairs down to the street two at a time and avoided hitting Val on the bottom step. She threw herself at the shorter woman, hugging her tightly. Val leered at Lina, eyes meeting hers in such a strong look that Lina flinched slightly under his gaze.   
  
"It's so good to see you both!" she said, pressed her face into Lina's crimson hair and nodding towards Gourry. The swordsman grinned, waving towards Val, who gave him the same angry stare he'd given Lina. "Val, come say hello to your aunt and uncle!" Filia said, beckoning him. Val heaved himself off the wooden step, approaching the trio.   
  
"Hi," he said, not bothering to greet them with any kind of respect. This received a stern glare from Filia, which the young boy ignored.   
  
"Hi Valteria!" Gourry said cheerily. The boy muttered something coldly in response.   
  
Filia grabbed Lina's arm, dragging her towards the house. "Let's get out of the rain," she said. Lina nodded and followed the dragon maiden, Gourry trailing behind her. Val paused for a moment, watching the screen door slam behind them. His hair was getting damp in the light drizzle, but he suddenly had no desire to talk to the infamous Dra Matta. In fact he   
  
(why the hell is she here?!)  
  
felt great anger towards the woman and her companion. Hissing under his breath, he walked back up the steps and opened the door, entering the warm, friendly kitchen where Filia was already chatting while Lina and Gourry were each inhaling a bowl of noodles and grunting in response to most of the miko's words. Val groaned, strolling over to the table where he'd be forced to make bull shit conversation with the sorcereress who'd stolen everything from him before.   
  
The sun was dipping below the horizon and the group was still talking while Jiras and Grabos occasionally entered the room to add their two cents to the conversation. Valteria stared at the wall on the wall opposite him, watching the pendulum swing back and forth in its mesmerizing pattern.   
  
"I can't believe you're still traveling together, what with the Hikari no Ken gone and everyone else having gone their separate ways!" Filia said, putting down the empty flowered cup in her hand to pour another cup of tea.   
  
Lina twisted the thin gold band around her finger, blushing slightly. "Yeah..." she said as Filia smiled warmly. "I guess we just decided it would be weird to ever be apart so..."  
  
"That's wonderful Lina!" Filia said as Gourry and Lina looked at each other, both a little red in the face.   
Val felt a sudden pang of hatred engulf his mind, searing into his brain like a needle.   
  
(she doesn't deserve to be happy!) a voice in the back of his mind hissed.   
  
"When's the wedding?" Filia asked, her eyes a bit more bubbly than Lina was comfortable with. The enchantress suddenly found herself remembering what Amelia said at Martina's wedding.   
  
*I want to be a heroine of Justice AND a bride!*   
  
Lina was both.   
  
"This fall. We think," Lina replied.   
  
"That's great! I can't believe you two actually decided to get married!" the dragon maiden said.  
  
*  
  
  
Lina brushed a strand of unruly hair out of her eyes, groaning as she saw the face in the reflection of a puddle of rain left over from the previous night. There were dark crescent moons of black underneath her eyes, which looked faded and dim compared to their usual bright glimmer.   
  
Filia had been frantic after telling Lina Xellos had made himself known, so frantic that both her and the red head had lost sleep over the whole thing. "Shit..." said murmured, staring down at her blistered feet cracking from the lack of her comfortable boots, which had been replaced by pink flops for aesthetic purposes. "Stupid feet!" she yelled, flinging one of her sandals up into the air, where it landed in a shrubbery.   
  
"Aw crap. Taking a stupid walk to get away from Filia's nervous breakdown wasn't worth this!" she looked upwards towards the dirty gray sky where a million sooty cotton balls were playing. "What did I do to get stuck in this little hick town hm?!! Who up there hates me enough to make me have to fight *more* mazoku?!!" she screaming, tugging on her hair. Stalking over to the bush, she felt around before letting out a small cry.   
"Ow!" she said, recoiling her hand. Whimpering, she stuffed her index finger into her mouth in an attempt to stop the shocks of pain flowing through it. "Stupid rose bush!" she said, her voice muffled by her finger. Distracted, her eyes drifted towards the hilltop, quiet and undisturbed by the sounds of explosions. Lina shuddered, felling a sudden wave of ice beginning to pump through her veins. That hilltop frightened her. This town did. Bad memories and hatred haunted it.   
  
(lina...)  
  
Whirling around, Lina called out. "Hello?" she waited a moment, listening for the airy voice again. "Did someone say my name?"  
  
(lina...)  
  
Lina stamped her rock, wincing as it collided with a sharp rock. "Is someone there?"  
  
(we're right here.)  
  
"Right *where*?" Lina asked, walking in a circle around the spot we're she'd been standing.   
  
(we're everywhere. we're the town...we're avolia lina. come to us lina-chan)  
  
"Who the hell's there?!" she barked, fear starting to grip at her mind and her pulse racing. The voice...the voices weren't coming from anywhere...they were coming from everywhere. They were all one voice, a thousand different speeches mixed into one brew. "This isn't funny! Show yourself!"  
  
(you can't see us till you're here with us)  
  
"Where are you?!!"   
  
(under)  
  
"Under what?!!"   
  
(under the ground with the flies and the maggots and the bodies lina...)  
  
Taking a hesitant step backwards, Lina was ready to stop talking and quickly make her way back to town. She'd heard about things like this happening, and she was growing more and more afraid. She couldn't control herself. Her thoughts and her body wouldn't obey her will.   
  
(come join us)  
*NO!* her mind screaming, the voices growing louder and thicker, clouding her visions and invading her thoughts. Frantically, she pressed her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut. *GO AWAY!*   
  
(no)  
  
*What spell...what spell?!!* she couldn't concentrate. She was thinking for a hundred people, and she couldn't clear them out. Trying to maintain control of her body, she forced herself to take a step backwards. Her foot hit ground, but it was slippery with rain and round. Lina screamed as she felt herself falling backwards, the voices still cramming her brain with their thoughts. Her head hit the side of a rock, the stone cutting into her skull and shattering it as rainwater streamed down her cheeks. She felt warm blood slide down the side of her head, her face pressed into a small depression on the side of the road. She tried to move her hand, but only her finger twitched for a moment as darkness began to cloud her vision.   
  
"Gorr...Gourry..." she managed to murmur before she lost everything in a sea of deep red fog, never to awaken or see the man who would have called himself her husband and protector.   
  
*  
  
"We've looked everywhere, and we still can't find her!" Jiras said, sighing as reported the news to Filia, who face was painted in worry.   
  
"Where could Lina-san be...?" Filia said, a thousand frantic thoughts racing in her mind like mad horses. Gourry was seated at the kitchen table, quickly stuffing some porridge into his mouth before preparing to go back to his search. They'd alerted the police, but Filia had a feeling the men in the force couldn't do anything to help them. "No luck..." she said to Gourry.   
  
"Ms. Copt!" a voice called from the street. "Ms. Copt! Come quickly!" Filia blinked a few times before dashing out of the house, hearing the shouts of her neighbors. Gourry shoveled another spoonful of oatmeal into his mouth, looking out the window at the small crowd beginning to form in the middle of the street. A few minutes later Filia immerged from this group, her head lowered down to her chest as she slowly mounted the porch steps and opened the door.   
  
Gourry looked up from his breakfast, staring directly into Filia's eyes, which were reddened with tears that cascaded down her cheeks. "Filia...?"  
  
"They...they found Lina," she sobbed quietly, slipping to her knees, biting on her index finger to stop a scream from erupting from her throat.   
  
Gourry jumped up from the table, knocking his chair over in the process and bolting past Filia, the screen door slamming behind him. A small group of citizens was crowded in the middle of the street, whispering and each having a dismayed expression on their features. Pushing through the crowd, Gourry immerged to see a doctor in a white coat examining a pale creature spawned on the ground. Looking at her figure, the swordsman realized it was a woman wearing one pink flip flop with locks of hair (obviously still wet) starting to dry in little curls on her forehead. Her face was a light blue, eyes open and transfixed on something the swordsman could not see.   
  
(lina)  
  
"LINA!" he yelled, running towards the doctor and throwing himself at Lina's cold, stiff body, which reeked of rainwater and decay. Shaking her violently, he screamed her name over and over, getting no response except the occasional strand of hair falling on his hand. "LINA! Wake up! Lina!"  
  
Filia stood in the doorframe, her head hanging down.   
  
(i killed lina inverse)  
  
Guilt.   
  
She wasn't ready to live with guilt.   
  
*  
  
The last rays sunlight pooled on the carpet of apartment number 726, piercing through clouds of dust and the darkness that had settled in the room. Valteria had insisted that Garv open the curtains, due to the stuffiness and confinement of the flat. It was uncomfortable when no daylight was visible, when you couldn't tell whether it was two o'clock in the afternoon or midnight. A sense of time, that's what Val needed at the moment.   
  
How long in seconds, minutes, and hours until he himself passed away? He wanted dates. He wanted exacts. Lina didn't know what was going to happen to her...she didn't wake up and think she was going to die. In the confusion that followed the discovery of Lina's body, Val had slipped out, and he strongly thought he wouldn't be missed for another few hours.   
  
Val leaned against the arm of the couch as the man beside him inhaled the smoke coming from a cigarette he held in his right hand.   
  
"How'd she die?" Garv asked, turning his head towards the boy.   
  
"She drowned. She fell and hit her head and drowned," Val said, his face a slightly ashen and eyes a bit more distant and faded than usual. "Its...geez." He said, sighing a little.   
  
"So Xellos didn't do her in?" Garv asked. Val shook his head and Garv breathed a silent sigh of relief. "Hey, was she traveling with anybody? That Gary or whatever the hell 'is name was?"  
  
"Gourry? Oh yeah. They were gonna get married in the fall or something. I don't remember when though but Gourry's...Lina was sort of his life," Val finally managed to say. Garv nodded understandingly, taking a puff of his cigarette as his arm draped itself around the boy's shoulders, drawing him closer. "Mom said he was gonna live with us for a while...just until he can find out what to do. Mom says there's plenty of jobs at the woolen mill-he's probably gonna work there."  
  
"Ah." Garv said, looking Val over. "How's yer mom takin' this?"  
  
"She's...freaked. She thinks if Lina had never come here, she wouldn't have died I guess..." Val stopped, unable to find anymore words. Then he looked towards the former Dark Lord. "You didn't do anything to Lina did you?"  
  
"Val, I couldn't have even if I tried. She's more powerful than *me* now." Garv said, smiling bitterly. Val blinked, not really understanding what the older man was saying. Sighing, Valteria leaned in to rest his head on the bigger man's chest, listening to the sound of blood flowing and the steady beat of a heart.   
  
"...You have a heartbeat." Val replied idly, somewhat half sleep.   
  
"Eh?"  
  
"You never had a heartbeat before..." Val stated, raising his head to look in Garv's eyes.   
  
There was silence.   
  
Outside, on the darkened roof on an office building, Xellos Metallium stood, smiling eternally as he watching the scene with a sort of sick delight, a thousand tortures racing through his mind. Opening both eyes, he turned tail, walking off into the night. "This should...interest Juuou-sama..." he murmured quietly.  
  
*  
  
In a dark corner of the universe, a woman stood, alone and confused as she paced the sand by a black river's edge, watching tissue paper people wander back and forth and turning just in time to see the old wooden boat that had carried her to this place. "Where am I?" she asked.   
  
(with us)  
  
"Who the hell are you?!" she shouted, running towards the bank of the river, the black water pooling around her ankles.   
  
(we're everyone)  
  
"Na...ni?'  
  
(don't worry. you'll like it down here)  
  
End Chapter One  
  



End file.
